Vsevolod Knyasiev was recently arrested. Investigators found large amounts of cash in his apartment.Bild: pacific Press Agency / imago images
Ukraine
The President of the Supreme Court of Ukraine was arrested. He is said to have accepted millions of dollars in bribes. What we know about the case.
In addition to defending against Russian invaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy considers the fight against corruption in his own ranks to be the second most important fight his country is waging.
Now the Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities have apparently struck a blow that is both an important successbut can also be seen as a symbol for the deep roots of the problem in the Ukrainian state: the arrest of Vsevolod Knyasyev, President of the Supreme Court of Ukraine.
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According to the newspaper “Ukrainian Truth” around three million US dollars were secured from Knjasjew. He is said to have gotten the money by allowing himself to be bribed. In addition to the chief judge, raids were carried out on 18 other judges.
According to the newspaper, the money Knyasiev received was intended to facilitate a Supreme Court ruling in favor of oligarch Konstantin Shevago. Accordingly, the court had to decide on the suitability shares of the mining company Ferexpo, with Schewago being given an advantage.
Corruption is a big problem in Ukraine. In the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of the independent organization Transparency International Ukraine ranked only 116th out of 180 listed countries in 2022 and was thus in the same region as, for example, Sierra Leone, El Salvador or Algeria.
Not enough for the desired admission to the EU, which has always made Ukraine’s accession dependent, among other things, on a lower corruption rate in the country. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has therefore repeatedly emphasized that his government is doing everything possible to get the corruption problem under control.
In the past, including during the war against Russia, high-ranking officials, representatives of the judiciary and the military were repeatedly arrested or dismissed for not having taken the principles of their task very seriously.
(con/watson.ch)
The Kurds describe themselves as “the largest people without a country”. According to the Federal Agency for Civic Education (BPB), around 24 to 27 million Kurds live in five countries today. 13 million of them in Turkey.
